He waited until the moon slid behind the clouds before he moved from the stand of mulberry trees and jumped the drainage ditch at the side of the road. He landed on the far side harder than he wanted, sending a message up his spine telling him not to repeat that entry. Without slowing, he walked across the narrow road, stepping around the potholes. Like everything in this country, the road was on the verge of becoming something else, and no one could tell if it was more or less.

He reached the darkness of the seven-foot wall and hugged it as he listened for sounds. There was no wire or glass at the top of the wall and no perimeter sensors inside. He was over the top without trouble, chinning and rolling and dropping onto the ground three long steps from the terrace.

Nothing left but a heat-sensitive PIR on the front door. And that wouldn’t matter if he was quick.

The lock on the door was new—a replacement—not the best that could be had, but still a problem. He slid the pack from his back and took the pick gun from the front flap and the tension wrench he had velcroed in. He went twice in the darkness to locate the face of the lock, but slipping the tension wrench into the bottom was easy. Wet pussy was never as easy.

No tension at all. Wet and wild. He felt his way into the keyway with the pick gun. It felt like a brute in his hand, but worked like a ghost. Four snaps set the tumblers so quickly that his time at the door was no factor.

He waited before he pushed the door open, visualizing the interior for the last time. He knew it as well as his own before he had closed the place. There was one long room inside that was really three, but not overcrowded with furniture. A kitchen on the left. A bath.

He knew about the alarm system on the control panel near the bottom of the stairs and knew it was set to silent. That meant no problems with the neighbors. Still, it had to be deactivated within forty-five seconds, or vouched for by phone. Most people set their alarms quicker, but she had problems with her memory when she drank. And she drank. Most nights.